The (Im)proper Way
by repmetsyrrah
Summary: Tom and Matthew discuss the proper way of doing things, in the past and the future. S/T 3x05 AU.


**A/N:** Written for missmorange on Tumblr who asked for: _What Tom would have said if he had to ask Robert for Sybil's hand._

Un-betaed.

**The (Im)proper Way**

* * *

"We're just trying to figure out how to do things _properly_," Matthew sighed he leaned against the billiards table, watching his brother-in-law line up a shot.

"Well I'm certainly the wrong person to ask on matters of 'English propriety'," Tom told him, affecting the most posh accent he could manage for the last two words, making Matthew grin and roll his eyes. "I'm sure you could find a chapter on it in Debrett's," he teased.

He muttered a curse under his breath as he missed before straightening up. They weren't having a good game- perhaps it hadn't been such a wise idea to have those extra few glasses of whiskey before. Though it had left them both feeling pleasantly not-sober.

Matthew shook his head. "You know what I mean."

"Not really," Tom told him with a shrug. "Sybil told my Ma first but my brother overheard and he was the one to tell me. Sybil would never have forgiven him if she hadn't been in the room to see my face though," he added with a smile.

"I suppose you really aren't the right pair to ask about doing things the proper way," Matthew conceded. "Bursting into the drawing room to announce your marriage and what-not."

Tom laughed. "What other way were we to do it?" he asked. "Should I have pulled over one day on the way to Ripon, or Thirsk, taken my hat off and asked His Lordship for his youngest daughter's hand?"

The image set both of them laughing. Matthew taking longer than usual to take his turn and tapping his ball against the red one.

"Do you know, I think... I had..." Tom sighed, once he'd recovered, "I'd have told him exactly what I did tell him a day later," he said, recalling the argument in the inn with vivid clarity.

"I'd have told him that his daughter is the love of my life. That there is no women comparable to her in beauty or intelligence. That she is everything to me and that the only way for me to ever be complete, would be for her to agree to become my wife." Matthew was watching him with some amusement and Tom knew if he hadn't had half as many drinks as he had, he wouldn't have been saying any of this out loud. But as it stood, he found he didn't quite care.

"But," he continued, letting the alcohol carry him on, "most importantly, I'd have told him that from the moment I first realised I loved her, every waking moment of my existence has been devoted to her happiness. That all I desire from my life is that her's be a happy as I can possibly make it. "

He bent down and neatly pocketed Matthew's ball.

Matthew stood for a moment before laughing. "Well thank god you didn't because the rest of us would have had no chance after _that_."

Tom grinned back. "I wouldn't have finished there though," he told the other man. "Because then I'd have told him that everything I had just said was only to _prepare_ him for the announcement. And that if he thought I was asking permission he would be sorely mistaken. Because there is no one, absolutely no one, who needs to give Sybil permission to choose her own path in life, and that neither him nor I could influence her choices and the sooner he realised that, the easier life would be."

Both men stood in silence after Tom's speech, appreciating the fact they had both married very strong characters, though each so different from the other.

Matthew nodded but if he had been going to reply he was interrupted by the door opening and the arrival of their father-in-law.

"Robert, finally come to join us?"

"I was just wondering where you had gotten to," the Earl said. "Sybil wanted to tell you she's gone up to put Saoirse to bed," he told Tom, fumbling slightly with the Irish name but it made Tom's heart warm that he was truly trying.

"Thank you." Tom nodded. "I think that's us then," he said to Matthew, "were you keeping score?"

Matthew frowned at the ceiling for a moment. "No," he said slowly, as if the very idea confused him. "Were you?"

"No," Tom laughed, wondering just how much they had drunk.

"Well what _were_ you doing?" Robert asked, looking from one inebriated son-in-law to the other.

"We were just-" Matthew started before Tom spoke right over him.

"We were just discussing how Matthew and Mary are going to tell you that she's pregnant."

Robert's jaw dropped open and he turned to Matthew, his face alternating between joy, shock and disbelief. "Is that true? Really?"

Tom turned to grin at his brother-in-law, ignoring the angry glare levelled at him from the other man.

"See? That wasn't so hard."


End file.
